You’ve played Captain Sonar right? I often think of that game as the spiritual successor to Battleship. They have virtually nothing in common mechanically outside of the grid, but it’s the perfect realization of hunting the other team’s ship while avoiding being hunted.

Captain Sonar is an incredible game! I reviewed it very favorably back in the day, and played it for ages. As you've noted, the only problem is the strict player count.

If not for the arduous player count requirements (in particular how it can’t tolerate a last-minute +/- 1 player) it would easily be my favorite game of all time.